LOS ANGELES – July 10, 2014 – Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant will speak at a reception hosted by SunTrust to illuminate ideas from his new book, How the Poor Can Help Save Capitalism, share a few success stories and celebrate the official opening of the HOPE Inside SunTrust in Memphis location.

Since the HOPE Inside opened in December 2013, LeVeda McCou, the financial management counselor, at the Memphis branch reports more than 179 clients has received financial counselling and nearly 20 community partnerships have been established.

While those statistics are nice, to Shavone H. a letter to correct her credit resulted in being able to qualify for the house she wanted. In the case of Winston K. a business owner, a challenge on duplicate delinquencies earned him more than 80 points on his credit score in 30 days! And for Cecilia P. after a case of stolen identity left her credit devastated after a few counseling sessions Cecilia’s score increased to over a 600 credit score

The HOPE Inside, is part of Bryant’s vision to provide a wide range of free counseling services to help the underserved get out of debt, improve their credit scores, understand their financial options, and ultimately, reach their financial goals.

“I see this as a national prosperity and wealth-creation program to boost money literacy, savvy investment, youth entrepreneurship, and access through 1000 bank-based financial centers — we call them HOPE Inside locations – where people can go for confidential and free one-on-one counseling in personal credit score management, budgeting, responsible banking and borrowing, and small business development,” says Bryant. “We are pleased to see the Suntrust HOPE Inside at Memphis off to such a great start.”

For more than 22 years, HOPE, a global nonprofit focused on financial dignity, has empowered more than 2 million individuals and directed more than $1.5 billion in private capital to America's low-wealth communities. It has recruited a growing army of 20,000 HOPE Corps volunteers, and helped raise average credit scores for financial case management clients more than 120 points over an average 18-month period. It currently serves more than 300 U.S. cities, as well as South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and most recently, the United Arab Emirates. Currently HOPE is focused on Project 5117, a multi-year initiative that will track and increase business role models for youth, boost credit scores for adults, and empower underserved communities, as a part of its “silver rights” mission to make free enterprise work for everyone.

Individuals interested in attending the July 22nd annoucement can RSVP to SunTrust Banks here.